Sweet and Sour
by el sombrerero
Summary: The sweetness of the princess vanishes as soon as she focuses her mind on a goal, determined. This elicits a certain taste of sourness on most of her friends, but only one of them can appreciate both the bitter and the sweet.


Her once soft pink hair was tied on a messy bun, now greasy and with an awful need of cutting. She wore thick glasses that covered half of her face, stained with greasy fingerprints; hiding behind them were her tired, beady eyes; her lips were chapped, water being the least likely beverage she had taken for over a week now; her teeth, on the other hand, were stained yellow because of the endless intake of coffee. Stains of various foods and drinks decorated her white lab coat, coffee here, ketchup there, a stain of a fizzy drink now on her lap, even some gooey looking substance had managed to stain her dress and it was now eternally holding onto the fabric. If anything, she looked exhausted, as if she hadn't slept for weeks. Sometimes her head would start bobbing back and forth as she struggled to keep her eyes open and herself conscious; other times, her head ached, but her determination was stronger.

"I must finish this before sleeping. Just one more hour of tests and I can sleep," this she would often murmur to herself, scrawling up notes as she shoved her nose down a scale representation of her kingdom, or as she made cocktails of chemicals and unknown substances. Of course that hour would come and by that time she had already formulated more hypothesis and questions, which made her more reluctant to leave the job halfway done. "I can't leave it now. I must focus. There should be progress soon."

Every now and then people would enter to her laboratory, greeting her, trying to coax her into leaving her endless work to rest for a while, or have fun. "Fun? I don't have time for that Finn, now leave me unless you're willing to help." Of course, her friends never stayed for long; since her obsessive behavior started showing up, her friends had discovered that the sweetness of the princess had vanished, leaving instead a soured attitude filled with frustration, anger, and impossibly high expectations. Just as soon as people entered, they left and she was yet alone, drowned in notes, scribbles, paperwork, and the countless stains that kept appearing on her coat.

"Remember when you said I was distasteful?" The princess had her face buried in the food she had managed to procure for her newest all-nighter; she had carelessly fallen asleep with the notes on her hands and now they were all covered in grease and pizza sauce. She shook herself up and looked lazily at the intruder; the vampire queen was standing, or rather floating, right before her, eyebrows arched in disapproval, a frown on her face showing disgust. "Well, this smells like shit; I'm pretty sure that same smell is coming from you, PB." Mindlessly, the vampire began to pick and throw papers, notes, test tubes containing unknown materials, digging up a decent space for landing.

"When was the last time you had a shower?"

Frustrated, the princess incorporated herself and walked firmly toward the vampire, her beady eyes determined to kick her out of her sanctuary before she managed to destroy her life's work. "Get. Out. Now." The words were carefully pronounced, a hint of a threat behind her voice.

The vampire queen arched her eyebrow and smiled mischievously; the princess should know better by now. A threat, to her, is but a challenge. "Or?" She puckered her lips, arrogantly floating above the princess's head, taunting her while she observed her appearance from above.

"Marceline, now." The determination had not faltered, but her frustration was now evident, much to the vampire's amusement. "I am serious." The princess reached for the vampire's long, hair, pulling at it in order to get her back down to the ground.

"Really Princess, you should know better." A mischievous laughter escaped the vampire's pale lips; she floated a bit higher and then morphed into her bat form, making it impossible for the princess to catch her. Swiftly, the vampire began throwing petri dishes, microscopes, and notes; even Science's cage was thrown to the floor; thankfully, the rat had escaped from the toxic environment a while ago to get some well-deserved sleep.

"Marceline, stop!" the princess shouted exasperated, helplessness gaining power over her as she collapsed on the floor, tears finally escaping.

"Whoa, whoa, what the heck? I'm sorry, okay? Don't cry." The vampire quickly morphed back into her juvenile form, swiftly landing on the floor and hurrying towards the princess. "I was playing, PB. I wanted to get the old you out and have some fun." The vampire sat next to the princess, taking in her form and sighing at the mess she was wearing. "I didn't touch anything important, okay? Just the random junk you had; your major stuff, I know where you keep it." She tried cooing the princess, failing miserably at apologizing. Frustrated, the vampire grabbed the princess's hair and began setting it loose from its messy bun. "Ew, really, when was the last time you showered?" she asked as she sniffed through her hair, finding odds and ends on the tips of it; she played with it for a while, wanting to calm her.

By this time, her friends would be hopelessly trying to make her smile again by talking or wanting to talk as opposed to being quiet; however, the vampire knew the princess well and she remained silent, stroking her hair and removing the dirt that had managed to cling to it. The princess sniffed and looked at the vampire queen as she played with her greasy hair. Slowly, she wiped her tears with the hem of her coat, ignoring completely the amount of junk that it was covered with. The vampire queen looked at her intently for a moment and then smiled mischievously again.

"Shower and then movies?" The princess looked back at her friend and sighed heavily. "Come on, the world's not gonna end for you having a break. Let's do this."

This time smiling, the princess stood up, looking at herself and wrinkling her nose in distaste. "No research until I take a shower. That's my new rule." She looked around herself and noticed the mess that she had been living in for the past couple of weeks while she was in the search of a cure that would prevent her candy people from dying. "I gotta stop obsessing."

The vampire queen nodded and playfully tugged at her coat. "One step at a time. First the shower because you really do stink." The vampire queen grabbed her friend from the hand and lifted her up as she floated towards her friend's room.

"Would you help me clean afterwards?"

The vampire sighed heavily and then slowly nodded, already regretting this decision. "Yeah, I'll help you." Many of her friends came and went, but throughout the years, Marceline was always there, through higher ups and pitch dark downs; she had known to appreciate both the sweetness and the sourness of the princess and had even taken a liking for the combination of these both, often being the one who always cheered her up. The princess could be herself around her.

"Marceline, thank you. For everything." The princess soon drifted off to sleep, leaving Marceline with a faded tint of red on her cheeks. She carefully placed the princess on her bed and headed back towards the lab, prepared to do some heavy cleaning.

"Any time, Bonnie."


End file.
